Never
by alaisiaga
Summary: O.W.L.s don't exactly have Lily in the best of moods. James probably won't help things. What chaos will ensue? LE:JP.


**A/N:** I wrote this a few months ago, and actually forgot about my account here. Oops. ; I'm going to be a lot more active now... But anyway, this is from a 100-prompt challenge that my sister made. This is based on prompt number 45: Never. (Incidentally, if you're interested in the prompt table, check out crystallicrain's livejournal.)

Ooh, it's good to be writing disclaimers again...:D Lily and her bruised shin, James and his perfect Slughorn impression, and the rest of the marauders and Hogwarts are all the intellectual property of J. K. Rowling. No offense is meant by my clumsy manipulation of her world.

* * *

**( n e v e r )**

Lily Evans climbed through the portrait hole, banging her shin in her hurry to get inside. Though her school satchel trailed empty from her shoulder, she clutched a pile of books and study guides to her chest so tightly that her knuckles were white. A stray paper fluttered in her wake as she swept angrily through the common room; she didn't even hear Remus Lupin's tentative greeting from his table against the wall.

Lily didn't slow her rapid stomping until she was safe in the girls' dormitory, where she slammed the pile of books on the wooden chest at the foot of her bed. Several more pages of notes flew out in a small flurry of papers, which made her even angrier. Finally, she sat down heavily on the bed and performed a quick silencing charm on herself. She screamed in frustration as hard as she could, until the charm wore off half a minute later.

_Breathe, Lily_, she told herself. She fell back on the bed and took a deep breath, irritatedly pushing her fiery hair out of her face and pressing her palms to her eyes. Two breaths, three. Four.

There. She now could think about the last half-hour without wanting to use an unforgivable curse.

She was still furious, though.

James Potter was an idiot. An egotistical, overloud, obnoxious, infuriating, _ridiculously_ devoid of common sense, idiot.

A smart idiot, but an idiot nonetheless. It irked her so deeply how much he downplayed his intelligence, to slack off and scrape by with just the bare minimum of work, getting grades just barely high enough to keep him on the house quidditch team. _So_, Lily thought sardonically, _it is only natural that he wouldn't understand that when a person is studying for exams in the library, she does _not _want to be regaled with stupidly accurate impressions of professors._

_The impressions _were rather amusing, though, she admitted grudgingly. He had McGonagall's disapproving sniff down perfectly, and Slughorn's voice was flawless, especially when he pretended to be lecturing about--

But the fact remained: in the library, such things were simply uncalled for. _Especially_ such things as not looking behind him when doing his Madam Pince impression. At that point, Lily had fled from the library, her cheeks blazing, before she could be unceremoniously thrown out.

But he could be sweet, sometimes.. even though he had a tendency to bumble his very, very public displays of affection-- completely humiliating her in the process of every attempt. Like that.. _incident_ with the Giant Squid. Or the mountain of lilies that she had been, ironically, allergic to. Was that why she kept giving him "last" chances that always just turned out to be only penultimate? Pity from the way he always managed to mess everything up in.. well.. such a thorough way?

And then there was the way that he looked at her-- no, not the normal cocky, self-assured glint in his hazel eyes, nor the overly-casual way that he would glance at her out of the corner of his eye when he was doing something particularly stupid to get attention. What got to her in spite of herself was that look of open adoration-- in that split second before he changed it again to smugness, it was _then_ that she could almost believe all the things he said.

_Almost_ being the key word.

Honestly, she didn't know why he kept pursuing her. They weren't suited for each other in the least. She would _never_ love James Potter.

She closed her eyes and sighed. _You might as well have just stayed in the library,_ she thought, _if you continue to allow him to get to you like that._ Another, final deep breath and she re-opened her bright green eyes, finally calmed down enough to get back to her studying.

Lily ruffled through the mess of papers sitting on the chest at the foot of her bed, trying to find her study guide for Potions. She _knew_ she had it, and she had to start studying with that one, because otherwise her entire schedule would be _off_... She sighed once more and pushed herself off the bed. _I must have dropped it_, she thought to herself as she went through the door of the girls' dormitory and descended the steps. _Perhaps the common room. If not, I'll just go back to... oh, bloody hell._ Lily stopped on the last step.

"Think you forgot something, Evans," James drawled. Sure enough, he was holding her study guide in his hand as he leaned casually against the wall.

"I'll take that," she snapped, grabbing the proffered sheet decorated with various colours of ink for different chapters. How could just one sentence, even his very _posture_ be so thoroughly infuriating? She turned on her heel and started up the stairs again. At least she would be free from him in the girls' dormitory, with the way the stairs would switch whenever a male tried to ascend.

"Wait," he said suddenly. Lily reluctantly stopped, turned around, and folded her arms across her chest.

"Well?" she said, tiredly, and looked at him with a combination of annoyance and curiosity, in spite of herself.

"Lily," James said quietly, "I wanted to let you know... I'm sorry about..." He trailed off and squinted at the floor as if to find the conversation there, rubbing the back of his head with one hand.

"Thanks for finding this," she said shortly. "Now, if you'll excuse me, _some_ of us have studying to be done."

_No_, Lily told herself sternly. _Never._


End file.
